SHE lifted her finger with gesture slow:

"'Tis true, for certain and sure, I know,

And I think when I say so you ought to be-

lieve—

They kneel in their stalls on Christmas Eve.

"The red one, the white one, the speckled

and brown,

When the clock strikes twelve, will all kneel

down;

And it happens so every Christmas Eve,

—Well, I'll tell you this, if you won't believe:

"Once, ages and ages ago it was,

I thought I would see for myself, because

I doubted a little, just like you,

Whether or no the story was true;

"And so one Christmas Eve I staid

Awake till twelve—Oh, I was afraid!

The wind was a-blowing, and no moon shone,

But I went to the stable myself, alone.

"And when I had slid the big doors back

I couldn't go in, it was so black;

But—solemn and true—I do declare

I heard the cows when they knelt down! There!"